Brokers Don't Have to Determine
Competency of Seniors, Court Says

By

Mary Flood Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Updated May 20, 1998 12:01 a.m. ET

In a ruling that could have broad impact, the Texas Supreme Court has told stockbrokers that they aren't responsible for determining whether their elderly clients are competent to make financial decisions.

"Unlike minors, the elderly are not presumptively incompetent nor, we believe, should they be," Justice Nathan Hecht wrote in the unanimous opinion handed down earlier this month. And, the opinion said, a provider of services to the elderly who "lacks any qualification for determining competence"...